OKX announced Friday it is rolling out regulated perpetual futures tied to Intercontinental Exchange's Brent and WTI oil benchmarks for traders outside the U.S., intensifying competition with Hyperliquid, the leading decentralized platform for such derivatives.
The international crypto exchange and New York Stock Exchange parent are targeting traders in the UAE, Europe, Australia, and Singapore, calling the move "a major step forward in expanding regulated access to global commodity markets through digital asset infrastructure."
"Oil markets are critical to the world economy," OKX Global Managing Partner Haider Rafique said. "Bringing them into regulated perpetual futures is exactly the kind of bridge between traditional and digital markets that market participants have been asking for."
The offering comes as the DOJ and CFTC probe billions of dollars in suspicious oil bets that preceded major announcements by President Donald Trump and a top Iranian official, per ABC News.
Earlier this week, Hyperliquid pushed back against market integrity concerns that ICE and CME Group raised with regulators, rooted in the unregulated nature of its platform which does not require KYC.
Hyperliquid debuted in 2023 and has emerged as the leader in open-access perpetual futures, currently holding $9.6 billion in outstanding trades. Binance dominates the broader market at $26 billion in notional open interest, while OKX stood at $8.2 billion on Friday. Hyperliquid's native token recently traded around $60.18, a 39% increase over the past week.